


On Her Own

by That_Omelette



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, M/M, Not meant to be shippy but interpret it how you will, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-25 23:58:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12047022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_Omelette/pseuds/That_Omelette
Summary: Pidge stays on the Castle while the team goes out for a little diplomacy. It was meant to be a safe, quiet day, but once again Prince Lotor finds a way to shock Team Voltron. This time, his plans result in the loss of a Paladin with the Castle of Lions.





	1. Ambushed

It had been about a month and a half since Pidge rescued her older brother. Since then, and much to everyone’s surprise, the Green Lion took a liking to Matt. It wasn’t just her being fond of the Green Paladin’s older sibling, the Lion would respond to Matt, even open up to him if he asked. He’d tinker with her technology the way Pidge would, fly her, fight with her, and even communicate with her mentally.

 

This was certainly a first for the Paladins of Voltron, because Pidge wasn’t being replaced by her brother. The Green Lion accepted BOTH Holt siblings as her Paladins, although it remained clear Pidge was still her favorite. At first, Allura was too shocked for words, she had no idea what this could mean. But, after mulling it over, the Altean Princess and Keith, the current Black Paladin, agreed that there would be no harm in letting Matt bond with the Green Lion and learn to form Voltron with the rest of the team.

 

Pidge didn’t mind it one bit, it was amusing seeing her older brother’s horrible flying as he learned the unique controls. And having a “substitute Paladin”, as the others had taken to calling him, allowed Pidge more time to herself to search for their missing father. Of course, she would give Matt some pointers here and there, mostly about trusting the Lion, not trying to control every little thing. It was difficult to grasp at first, but now Matt was finally getting used to the massive mech. Allura and Coran even made a new Green Paladin set of armor Matt to wear, after he and Pidge got tired of switching between the same armor and having to adjust the size every time.

 

Today, the rest of the Paladins decided that a trip to the planet Plythea for a diplomatic mission would be a good experience for Matt. Allura felt that if he was truly going to join Team Voltron, he should learn about more than just the fighting side of the job. While the Altean Castle waited in orbit over Plythea, the Lions would go down to the surface to meet with the world’s leaders in their own chosen location. Everyone was going, including Coran and Shiro, who felt it would be nice to get some fresh air and meet new allies in person.

  
“Pidge, are you sure you wouldn’t like to join us? You are, after all, the Green Lion’s primary Paladin.” The Princess asked the youngest Paladin with a soft tone. She and Pidge were standing in the Blue Lion’s hangar. Allura was fully armored up in pink and white, Pidge was wearing her usual baggy boy’s clothes.   
  
“Yeah, I’m sure. We gathered a lot of intel from that last Galra base, and Kolivan thinks my dad may have been there at some point, so I want to go over it thoroughly. With you guys out doing meetings and parties, I have plenty of time by myself to sift through everything without any distractions.” Pidge replied in an upbeat tone. Ever since reunited with Matt, she’d been happier

than ever, and her determination to find their father had increased tenfold.   
  


Allura smiled and nodded in understanding, and placed a hand gently on Pidge’s shoulder. “Alright, since you insist. We’ll call to check in on you when we can, make sure you don’t forget to eat this time.”   
  


That little reminder earned a playful eye roll from Pidge, who crossed her arms with a smirk. “No promises. Now go on, the guys are waiting for you.”   
  


Allura gave the Paladin a small scowl, and placed her fists on her hips while speaking with a more firm tone now. “I mean it, Pidge. The last time we left you to your own devices for a prolonged period of time, you became so absorbed in your research you forgot to eat for a whole eight vargas. Your brother wouldn’t let us hear the last of it!”   
  
Pidge awkwardly laughed, rubbing the back of her head before pulling out her phone, and beginning to type. “Okay, here, I’ll set a reminder on my phone for a few vargas from now. Good?”   
  
This pleased the Altean Princess, and she nodded with an adorable smile. “Yes! Very good. Now I really should be going, take care Pidge!”

As Allura turned and entered her Lion, who had been patiently waiting with its mouth open the whole time, Pidge smiled and waved goodbye to her friend. She stayed to watch Blue take off, then turned back herself and left the hangar.

Back in her own Lion’s hangar, currently Lion-free thanks to Matt taking Green out with the others, Pidge sat down at her lab and plugged in the drive which contained the intel she’d mentioned to Allura. Her computer would begin running the decryption and translation algorithms Hunk helped her figure out a long time ago.   
  


Leaning back in her seat, Pidge let her head dangle off the back of the chair, and lazily looked around the hangar as she let the algorithms do their thing. It would be a few minutes before the decryption and translation was done, so she had time to relax.

“All by myself here, huh?” her eyes fell on the wide open space normally occupied by her mechanical companion. “Not even a Lion to keep me company. Guess I should get used to the quiet, since Matt needs to bond with Green and the Team, this is probably gonna be a regular thing.” A soft scurrying noise and small squeaking overhead caught the lone Paladin’s attention, and she gazed up to spot four small bodies running out of an air vent. As each of them plopped down into Pidge’s lap one by one, the girl giggled and scooped the Altean mice into her hands.

“Well, guess I’m not  _ entirely _ alone.” Each mouse happily greeted Pidge, Platt waved up at her. Gazing passed the mice to the computer screen, she caught the last lines of translation finishing up. Carefully, she moved the mice up to her shoulder so she could slide her chair closer to the desk, and get to work. They comfortably settled, Chulatt and Chuchule crawled up into her fluffy hair, practically getting buried in it as they laid down.

The only information she’d managed to find was which commander’s ship he had been transferred to, which seemed to be outdated anyways. The likelihood of him still being with that commander was slim.... Regardless, some of the rest of the intel in here was pretty useful, she’d have to go over it with Kolivan and the rest of Team Voltron once everyone got back.

When Pidge’s alarm went off, the Altean mice jumped at least an inch into the air, and clumsily fell down the Green Paladin. Pidge just looked to her phone with a start, reaching over to turn it off while chuckling. “Sorry about that, guys. That’s just my little promise to Allura going off, what do you say we go get some food? I’m sure Hunk left something more solid than food goo for us.”

At mention of Hunk’s cooking, all four mice perked up immediately, and excitedly crawled up to Pidge’s shoulder. They were ready to go, but the girl hadn’t gotten up yet. Her eyes were still trained on the screen, despite her body being faced away, like she was ready to stand. Impatiently, Plachu jumped up and gave Pidge’s cheek a little kick. The girl flinched and brought a hand up to rub where he’d kicked it.   
  
“Ow! Okay, okay, I’m going!” With an annoyed huff, she got up to her feet, and was about to start walking when she winced. “Agh! Don’t think I moved much that entire time, my legs are all stiff.” Slowly, Pidge raised her arms over her head, straightening out her back as she stretched. Then she stretched downwards, and the mice had to cling to her shirt to avoid falling off. Pidge smirked at them before she continued, stretching out each of her limbs with a groan.

Once she was all done, she let out a heavy, relieved sigh. “There! That’s better. Now we can get some food.” When Pidge finally began heading out of the hangar, the mice squeaked happy cheers in celebration.

\---

“Prince Lotor, we’ll be leaving hyperspace near Plythea in one dobosh. As our informants promised us, the Altean ship is idle in orbit over the planet.” Acxia turned away from the screens before her to look at Lotor while she updated him. The corner of his mouth raised just slightly, as he leaned his head against his fist.   
  
“Very good. Alert the fighters, ready them for launch.” 

The more colorful of his generals, Ezor, perked up, and turned to Lotor curiously. “Wait, if the lion pilots are supposed to be down on Plythea for a diplomatic meeting, then why are we attacking the ship? It should be abandoned, right?”

“No, we’ve seen the Altean ship engage in combat while Voltron is in use, so we know that the ship houses more than just the lions and their pilots. However, we do not know the number of people on board, and we don’t want them calling for help, so we’ll act with caution.” Lotor watched Ezor’s confusion turn to understanding and amusement, and she nodded with a delighted hum before turning back to her console.

Axcia delivered her commands to the fleet before space came to a sudden halt around them, while Lotor and Ezor’s chatter ended with the hyperspace jump. Through the windows, the planet Plythea was plainly visible, and the Altean Castle of Lions was not far from their current location.   
  
Lotor sat up, and gave his orders. “All fighters, launch!”

\---

“Of  _ course _ Hunk made you guys mouse food, but forgot about people food.” Pidge grumbled as she watched the four space mice nibbling away at their homemade food pellets. Meanwhile, the Green Paladin slurped at a spoonful of food goo. She was still mentally processing all the information she’d gone over earlier, so she was eating slower than usual. Every few moments, she’d even pause altogether, not noticing until one of the mice squeaked to snap her out of her thoughts.

She was just about to take her next bite when suddenly the blaring alarm of the Castle startled her, causing her to drop her spoon with a loud clatter against the table. “What is that?!” Jumping up from her seat, Pidge waved her hand through the air, and and an image displayed on the large screen overlooking the dining room table.

The mice scurried up to Pidge’s shoulder in a panic, clinging to the girl as her eyes widened at what she saw. “Oh, no….”

A Galra fleet loomed just outside the castle, with Lotor’s battlecruiser positioned in the middle of the scrambled fighters. At least four other cruisers accompanied them, it wasn’t long before the Castle of Lions began to shake and rumble from the lightning fast bolts of the enemy ships.

Without wasting any time, Pidge hurdled out of the dining room, sprinting to the bridge. Chest heaving, her mind kicked into overdrive, she needed a way out of this,  _ she needed a plan _ . Dying was out of the question, and being captured isn’t an option either.

Panting, Pidge informed the mice of her plan. “If I can get in touch with the others, then we shouldn’t have anything to worry about! Matt can bring Green back here while everyone else holds Lotor’s fleet off. I get in the Green Lion, meet with the others, we form Voltron and blast our way out of here!”

Right, that’s it, think positive, that’s all she had to do, don’t panic, just think positive! If there was one thing the instructors at the Garrison made sure to drill into the cadets, it’s that your mission might go badly, but it’s certain to fail if you panic. She made a point to keep that advice in mind, remembering how it helped when she was separated from the team during the wormhole jump from Zarkon’s central command.

Practically barreling onto the bridge, Pidge slid into her seat as it rose up from the floor, and she immediately raised the particle barrier. Without an Altean, she wouldn’t be able to shoot back or move the ship, but at least she could protect it for a while. “Keith, you need get everyone back to the Castle immediately! Lotor just showed up with a massive fleet, and I’m taking heavy fire up here…! Keith…? Hello??”

After not receiving any response from the team, Pidg brought up another screen to see what was wrong. She clenched her jaw seeing the damage done. “Those first attacks took out the castle communications...Lotor’s always a step ahead.”

  
More rumbling from the outside caused Pidge to grunt, then look up. Several fighters had been trapped inside the particle barrier, and were still attacking the ship. Knowing she wouldn’t last very long with those, Pidge brought up the holographic controls for her defense drone. It was a large disc-shaped sort of probe with a single laser at the front, and green markings on the top and bottom, and glowing green lights on the sides. It wasn’t very powerful, but Pidge hoped it could at least take out these few fighters inside the particle barrier.   
  


Her plan worked out well at first, she did manage to destroy each of the Galra fighters within the particle barrier, and decided to move her drone outside to thin out some of her attacker’s numbers. But the drone was quickly overwhelmed, and the Galra fighters destroyed it. 

“No!” Shakily, Pidge sighed in attempt to calm herself down while looking up at the chaos outside. The mice clung to her in fear, knowing they were in trouble if help didn’t arrive soon. Now the battlecruisers engaged the castle, purple light followed by a massive explosion told Pidge the castle was being attacked with their ion cannons. Alarms began ringing all around Pidge, the castle trembled with each blast it took from the outside ships. Pidge began to think, searching her mind for a solution, a way out of this…”MY HELMET!” She cried out suddenly, leaping from her chair.

“I can get into contact with the others through my helmet! We always have to wear our armor during diplomatic meetings, and we aren’t too far away for the helmets to connect!” Pidge nearly crashed into the elevator down to the Green Lion’s hangar. Her armor was waiting in a room the Paladins stopped by along the way to their lions.

\---

“Looks like you were right, there is at least one person on board the Altean ship. Whoever they are took out nearly all of our fighters that were inside the particle barrier.”

Lotor’s interest peaked at the wording of Acxia’s update, and his gaze turned to the woman. “‘Nearly’ all?”

“Yes, it appears a single fighter escaped destruction by concealing itself at the base of one of the ship’s spires. It’s requesting orders.”

The Galran Prince’s mouth split into a grin, and he leaned forward in his seat, pulling up a screen. “Excellent. I’m marking out vital spots on the ship’s hull, transmit them to the fighter and order it to attack these locations.”

“Yes, sir.”

\---

  
The shaking continued as Pidge rode the elevator down, arms crossed with one finger tapping against her elbow. The castle suddenly began to take even stronger hits, one of which nearly knocked Pidge on her feet.

  
“GAH! That...didn’t feel like a hit on the particle barrier…” Based on the fact that there were still weaker tremors along with a few new stronger ones Pidge deduced that she’d missed a fighter inside the particle barrier. “Gotta hurry….”

Finally the doors slid open, and Pidge made her way to the armory. Her armor lay folded up on a table where she’d left it, and to her surprise, her Bayard sat right next to it as well. Matt didn’t like the idea of Katie being all alone on the Castle, he must have left it here in case of emergencies.

“Thanks, Matt…” she muttered under her breath while grabbing her helmet. Just before she could put it on, several powerful tremors knocked the girl forward, flat on her chest, her helmet slid almost all the way across the room. Pidge groaned and rubbed her chin, having slammed it on the floor when she fell. Just as suddenly as those severe tremors began, they stopped, and an entirely different feeling caught the Green Paladin’s attention. The castle was being pulled up.

“Oh, no...no, no, NO!” Dashing forward, she lunged to grab her helmet, slammed it on top of her head, and shouted for help.

“GUYS, THE CASTLE’S UNDER ATTACK BY PRINCE LOTOR! I think he’s trying to take it away using a tractor beam, you need to get ba-AUGH!” Pidge fell over on her back, she’d been  cut off by a sudden jerk, as though the castle was still one moment, and moving the next. But Pidge knew that it hadn’t taken off on its own.

Hurrying to put on the rest of her armor, Pidge grabbed her Bayard and ran back to the bridge to find out what was going on. Once there, what she saw nearly made her heart stop. The Castle of Lions had been grabbed by one of Lotor’s cruisers, and that cruiser had just taken the ship into hyper drive. There was no contacting the team now, Lotor would have made sure that their destination was far enough away that none of the Lions could catch up even at their top speed.

Wherever they were going, it could take days, weeks, months...maybe even a year for any of the Lions to find Pidge after this.

She was on her own.

  
  



	2. A Trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Negotiations on Plythea go well, but something's off. Matt receives encouragement from Hunk the sunshine child, and Keith is paranoid.

“Sir, the fighter has taken out each target you marked. The Altean ship’s particle barrier is down, and we’re seeing no signs of any other defenses.” Acxa called over her shoulder to Prince Lotor, watching as the Altean ship began taking heavy fire from their fleet. Lotor grinned smugly, and opened up a communications line with each of the generals in the fleet.

 

“All cruisers and fighters, cease fire, we want this ship in one piece. General Brekk? You are free to move in, we’re taking it with us.”

 

As the Generals each slammed their fists to their chests in a salute, shouting “Vrepit sa!”, Zethrid gazed up to the Castle of Lions curiously.

 

“I’m a little disappointed with how pathetic a fight it put up. We know from experience this ship has more firepower than that.” Lotor gave a slow nod in agreement, watching General Brekk’s cruiser move forward, activating its tractor beam to bring in the castle. Brekk’s cruiser was considerably large for its model, Lotor knew he would need a massive cruiser to keep a proper hold on the Altean ship during the hyperspace jump.

  
  
“Yes, it would seem whoever’s left on that ship has not been properly trained to fly and arm it. Or they simply don’t have access to its deadlier weaponry. Regardless, we should be moving, now. All of you, with me.” He suddenly sounded more serious, something was on his mind.

  
  
The four generals looks up to their Prince in surprise, and as he took leave of his chair, Lotor put his back to them and explained. “The longer we allow whoever’s on board that ship to live, the greater threat they pose to our plans.”

 

Zethrid just grinned and placed a single fist on her hip. “Threat? You said so yourself, whoever’s still on there doesn’t even know how to fly their own ship! What threat could they pose?”

 

“You’ll note I also said they may not have had access to its other systems, Zethrid.” Lotor stated cooly while pausing to look at his subordinates. “I recognized that flying when they were using a defensive drone, I believe I have an idea as to who it is we’re dealing with. And if I’m correct, we’ll need to disable them at the very least.”

 

The four shared a look amongst themselves. They knew Prince Lotor studied his adversaries closely, but that drone had been flying so briefly, none of them thought it would have been enough for him to deduce anything. Regardless, they loyally followed after him, trusting his decision.

 

\---  


 

The five Lions of Voltron stood proudly over Verduor town on Plythea, each sitting in their usual arrangement with Blue and Yellow at the far ends, Black in the middle, and Red and Green at its sides. Villagers gathered around to admire the magnificent beasts, and artists were making sketches to capture this historic moment.

The Paladins of Voltron, with Matt taking Pidge’s place in this mission, had been escorted to the largest building in the town. Verduor is where the planetary leaders chose to hold their meeting. Matt noticed the level of technology on this planet was about equal to Earth’s, and although the architecture was more ragged, the Earthling Paladins were reminded of their home.

Negotiating the terms of Plythea joining the Voltron Alliance took some time, about a few vargas according to Coran. There was quite a lot to discuss, Plythea’s forces had been severely weakened while resisting the Galra. Nonetheless, they did come to acceptable terms of agreement, and now the Paladins were leaving to join a party held in their honor.   
  


Matt tried not to groan as he stretched out his arms and legs, he didn’t want to accidentally offend the planetary leaders. The Yellow Paladin approached him from behind, and gave his back a firm pat.   


  
“Legs all stiff?”

  
  
“Yeah,” Matt replied with a chuckle as he stood upright again “Do these meeting always carry out this long?”

Hunk shrugged lightly. “Sometimes, but not always. Planets that had the technology to put up more of a fight against the Galra are usually more willing to join up. Those who’ve been enslaved for longer than a few centuries usually need more convincing.”   


  
With a solemn gaze, Matt looked over the dignitaries and servants. “I know firsthand how cruel the Galra can be, but until I started travelling with you guys, I had no idea that some people were enslaved for so long they didn’t know if it was even  _ possible _ to fight back.”

This brought a frown to Hunk’s face, and an old memory from his earlier days in Voltron returned. “The first planet we freed with Voltron was a Balmera, Coran and I went there to get a crystal for the Castle of Lions. I couldn’t believe that those people had been under the Galra’s rule for long, they didn’t know what the word ‘free’ meant.”

 

Matt looked to Hunk, surprise clear on his face. “Wait, really? I heard about the Balmera from Katie and the others, but nobody mentioned it was  _ that _ bad.”

Hunk nodded to Matt. “Yeah, it was. Seeing how those people lived, it showed me just how horrible the Galra Empire really is, and I’m part of a team that do something about it.” He reached out and place a hand gently on Matt’s shoulder, wearing the biggest, friendliest smile in the known universe. “You’re part of that team too, now.”

Matt couldn’t help the smile he gave in return, Hunk had this seemingly magical way of making anyone feel happy. According to Allura, it’s a trait specific to the Yellow Paladin. He gave a soft chuckle before answering. “Well, I’m  _ almost _ a part of that team. I still have to figure out how to form Voltron with you guys.”   
  


“And the Green Lion, don’t forget her. In order to form Voltron you need to bond with your Lion, too.” Hunk added in a light-hearted tone. Matt chuckled a little.   
  


“Right, her too, I guess.” that last part made Hunk raise an eyebrow.

  
  
“You guess?”

“Well, yeah, just...I don’t know, when I think about Voltron and the Green Lion, I think of Katie. This is all her thing, and she’s done so much on her own already, I don’t know if I can match her.” With a look of understanding, Hunk smiled and nodded, then crossed his arms.

  
  
“Listen buddy,  _ nobody _ can match your sister. But the Green Lion chose you, she chose both of you, and the first step to being a Paladin of Voltron is trusting in your Lion.” with Matt’s attention fully on him now, Hunk’s smile softened and he continued. “Every Paladin brings something new to the team, it just takes time to find out what that thing is. You’ll figure it out, just be patient and believe in the Green Lion.”

  
  
The Green Paladin stared at Hunk in awe, finding inspiration in his words. Allura was right, as the leg of Voltron, Hunk really did know how to lift people up. With his worries washed away, Matt smiled brightly and nodded. “Thanks, Hunk. That really means a lot.”

“Hey, no problem. Now let’s get to that party, I heard they got the best chefs from around the world to make their food!” With a laugh, Matt followed Hunk out of the meeting room and into the open area that had been prepared for the guests. It didn’t look like a party room, more like an office that had all the desks moved out. Still, they made it appear as formal as possible. There  was a line of tables set up with snacks and drinks, and a smaller table by the door where the Paladins left their helmets.

The partygoers were a small handful of wealthier citizens, along with the leaders they spoke with, and ambassadors from farther corners of Plythea. Strangely, everyone but the Paladins, Coran and Shiro included, wore a black bracelet. Matt noted that it almost looked Galra in origin.

Keith stood off to the side, looking around the room wearily. His curiosity getting to him, Matt approached the Black -- clad in red -- Paladin. “Keith, you seem on edge, everything okay?”

“I don’t think so…” he gave a look to Matt, then nodded his head in the direction of the doors. “They locked all the doors and windows with soldiers posted at every exit.” Surprised, Matt looked around. Keith was right, every window was boarded shut, the doors had been closed and locked behind him and Hunk when the two came in, and any other doors were locked and guarded.

“That...doesn’t look like a formal party custom. Do you think this is a trap?”

“Maybe...keep your guard up. Did you bring your Bayard?” Matt winced slightly at that, and slowly shook his head.

  
  
“Agh, no, I left it with Katie’s armor in case she needed it.” Keith slowly nodded, leaning back against a column.

  
  
“Alright, that’s fine. If anything does happen, we’ve got you covered. Can you go around and tell the others?” Matt nodded in confirmation, beginning to walk off before Keith grabbed his arm to tell him one more thing. “Keep it quiet, though, if it turns out to be nothing, we don’t want to offend the Plytheans. If I’m right, and this is a trap, we don’t want to tip off that we know.”

“Right. I’m on it.” Matt nodded before Keith let him go to alert the rest of the team. He made sure to keep a relaxed stature and a smile on his face, following Keith’s orders not to tip off the locals. It seemed to work, nobody gave him any suspicious looks, and the rest of the Paladins(plus Coran and Shiro) all kept calm when receiving the news. Allura was the last one he needed to inform, and currently she was speaking with one of the dignitaries, so Matt had wait until she finished.

  


Keith calmly walked along the edges of the party, checking the place out for any potential danger. As he passed by the table with the Paladin helmets, he heard a voice suddenly start shouting from them.

“GUYS, THE CASTLE’S UNDER ATTACK BY PRINCE LOTOR! I think he’s trying to take it away using a tractor beam, you need to get ba-AUGH!” It was Pidge’s voice, no doubt about that. Keith lunged to grab his helmet, but the soldiers guarding the door aimed their guns to him, and he stopped immediately, glaring to them.  The clicking sound of guns readying grabbed the attention of everyone in the room, and for several moments, all was silent. Allura slowly looked to the Plythean she’d been speaking with. “Ambassador, please,  _ what _ is going on here?!”

The Plythean woman frowned with regret, and raised her wrist to press a small button on the unusual black bracelets Matt noticed earlier. “My apologies, Princess.”

From all corners of the room, panels slid open in the floor, and lightning rod-like devices rose up. They were unmistakably Galra. Purple beams of electricity shot out to connect each one, and a wave of power blasted inwards, sweeping across the party. The black bracelets protected the Plytheans, but not the Paladins.

The last thing Matt heard before he lost consciousness was the pained screams of his friends mixing with his own.

\---

“Okay...there. The pod’s all ready to go, now we just have to wait until the fleet leaves hyperspace.” Pidge lightly sighed as she spoke to the Altean mice on her shoulder. She was standing in the pod bay, and just finished installing her cloaking device into one of the pods. After closing the opened panel on its side, Pidge took out a small remote-like device.

“Once we leave the castle, this distance-based detonator will set off the bomb I put in the teludav chamber.” Both the detonator and the bomb itself were made from spare parts, Pidge whipped it all together last minute.

Coran wouldn’t be happy about her blowing up the ten-thousand year old teludav, but it was better than letting Lotor have it. That’s the only reason she could imagine Lotor would take the Castle of Lions when the Paladins are all away.

 

The mice gazed up to the small Green Paladin, frowns on their faces. None of them wanted to leave, but they could tell the situation was dire. “I just hope the cloaking device is enough to get us away from Lotor’s fleet. If things get really serious, I could risk the booster rocket I added on, but that has a fifty percent chance of blowing us up.”

From the end of the room, Pidge heard the doors at the hangar bay’s entrance slide open, and footsteps coming in. There were a lot of them, at least four. Quickly, the Paladin dove behind the pod she was readying, and peeked from around the side to see who it was.

The group soon came into view, and Pidge immediately recognized most of them. The armors, the unique physiology...these were Prince Lotor’s generals. The Paladins fought them before in the Ulippa system, though there was one extra member here that Pidge didn’t recognize. He seemed to have white hair and purple skin, but it was difficult to tell behind the dark helmet he wore.

“Check the pods, make sure nobody’s trying to escape.” The man ordered the generals, and they split up to begin searching the hangar. Pidge recognized his voice from the battle above Puig, it was Lotor himself! Not good…panic was slowly starting to well up in her chest, none of the Paladins had fought Lotor in person yet. All she could deduce from his fighting style was he liked to toy with his victims. Shakily, she took a breath in, held it for a few ticks, then slowly let it out. It helped to calm her a little bit.

“Gotta get out of here…” She whispered as silently as possible, concealing herself back behind the pod and quickly pulling up a screen over her wrist. It displayed a map of the castle, Pidge zoomed in on the pod hangar. There was an air vent close by, she gazed up to her left and spotted it. “Okay, good.”

Cautiously, she took one more peek around the pod. The generals were close, the hooded one was nearing her location. Holding out her wrist, Pidge activated her hologram, and the solid light projection of herself immediately began to run. The generals went after it, and Pidge was quick to turn to the vent, firing her bayard’s grapple up to it.

The hologram did a good job of avoiding the blue one’s gunfire, and it might have distracted them long enough for her to get away. But a sudden screech that sounded like a cat echoed throughout the hangar, and all four of them stopped. Lotor growled out to them.

“That’s a  _ hologram _ , the real one’s getting away!”

“Oh, quiznak!” Pidge was still in mid-air when one of them opened fire, and the rest ran forward to attack her if she fell. Straightening her legs in front of her, Pidge used all her momentum to kick in the air vent’s cover. She fell a bit, but caught herself on the ledge of the vent opening, quickly holding her arm behind her back to block the incoming fire with her armor’s energy shield.

With one hand, the Green Paladin struggled to pull herself into the vent. The mice scampered off her shoulder to help, pulling her in by the collar of her undersuit. Once inside, Pidge deactivated her shield and crawled deeper into the vent to avoid being shot. Already, she could hear the frustrated shouts of “NO!” and “IT GOT AWAY!” from Lotor’s generals.

\---

“So, it  _ was _ the Green Paladin.” Lotor stated calmly as his suspicions were confirmed. Ezor furrowed her brow with confusion, and looked to him.

“I thought all the pilots were supposed to be on Plythea. Why’s one of them still here?” The Prince gave a small scowl to the vent the Paladin escaped through.

“It may be that there is a second Green Paladin. If that is the case, there could be more of them” He looked to his generals. “Go after the Green Paladin, and keep an eye out for any others, but be cautious. This one has been seen fighting with trickery and deception, often using her surroundings to her advantage. She may try to split you up, do  _ not _ allow that to happen.”

 

The generals nodded, and together  the four of them headed for the doors. Acxa, however, stopped for a moment and looked to Lotor. “What will you do?”

“I will go after the teludav. From your failure to secure the last one, we know the Paladins are more than willing to destroy it to keep it out of our hands. Now go.” Acxa gave a small wince at Lotor’s tone, and reminder of her failure, but followed after the rest of the generals anyways. As he left the pod hangar, a small grin crept its way across Lotor's face.

 

 "Things are going to get interesting from here, little Paladin."

\---

“Phew...thanks for the help back there, guys.” Having a small moment of relief, Pidge smiled to the mice, expecting their usual cheery cries. But she only saw them trembling and afraid.

Reaching down to pet Platt’s head, the Paladin softly spoke. “Don’t worry, I’ll get us out of this. Allura would bring me back from the dead and kill me again if anything happened to you guys.” She jokingly stuck out her tongue at them, and it did seem to help cheer the mice up a bit. Mostly, she was trying to cheer herself up by acting cool, it always seemed to help Lance. “And besides, it sounds like they think there’s more than one Paladin here. I’ll bet we can use that.” She gave a sly wink at the mice, then gently picked them up into her hands.

“Come on, let’s show these guys what happened to Sendak and Haxus when they tried to take this ship with me on board.” Now that cheered up the mice, all four of them jumped and squealed eagerly, climbing up to Pidge’s shoulder. She crawled through the vents as silently as possible, ready to kick some royal ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, I did NOT mean to spend so much time with Matt. Looks like I'll be doing four chapters instead of three.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fan fiction I've ever written, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I plan for this to be three chapters at the most, but if it receives a lot of love and attention, I might make more. We'll see.


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